Dresden Dog Shelter Needs Donations

The Dresden Dog Shelter is in need of volunteers and donations. The shelter, located at 140 Moore Street behind the Dresden Water Plant, is currently made up of five volunteers and are looking for some more help from the Dresden community. Claire Kisling, who lives in Gleason, has recently taken over as one of the main volunteers for the shelter in April. Other volunteers are Janet Bonar, Brian Lenderman, Nancy Esch, Serenity Harrell, and their boss Hunter Dyer.

“Most of us don’t even live in Dresden, and we are either retired or disabled,” Claire said.

Claire has never taken on the duty of running a shelter before, but she receives guidance from the Gleason Shelter as well as the Greenfield Shelter. The only prior volunteer animal experience that she has is interacting with wolves, cougars, bobcats, a leopard and arctic foxes in Naples, Florida. Once she heard about the shelter, she decided to help.

“I am retired and this gives me something to do,” Claire said.

The shelter now has four dogs. They recently sent three to a local foster care, transported one last week to be adopted by a family in Connecticut, Tonya from the Gleason shelter is fostering two, and Claire has one that she is fostering along with her own seven dogs. One of the main issues that they have faced are dogs being dumped. Once Claire hears about a dog being dumped, she and the group of volunteers will attempt to catch the dog and take it back to the shelter.

“It’s like an epidemic. Sometimes we have a lot of them and sometimes we only have a few,” Claire said.

The city and community have been a great help for the shelter, Claire says. The city provides food, gives them a building to house the dogs, and pays for vaccines. Some citizens have also helped to revamp the building the dogs are housed in, with adding a covering, fans for the summer, and even heat lamps for winter.

 Unfortunately, any other costs such as heartworm medication and toys, are paid for by Claire and the volunteers. The shelter also partners with other shelters and organizations that help to rehome the dogs, but the volunteers sometimes have to drive far distances to meet with the organizations to drop off the dogs.

“I feel like no one knows about us. We meet people every day that say that they don’t know we exist, so we want to spread the word. If someone’s dog goes missing, this should be the first place they check,” Claire said.

Claire and Janet recently met with Dresden Mayor Mark Maddox and gave him a list of items that they would like to acquire, as well as some clean up and construction work, such as adding another row of kennels (they currently have five), clean up fallen trees and debris, and add a sign so that citizens know where the shelter is located.

“The Mayor has been great and we are glad and thankful that he had had time to meet with us,” Claire said.

The team is actively looking for volunteers who enjoy dogs to help throughout the week and weekends. The volunteers go to the shelter in the mornings and feed the dogs, walk them, clean out the kennels, and play with them. 

They are also reaching out to the community about donations. Right now, the shelter would like pooper scoopers, rubber toys, and a universal chip reader to help check if any of the dogs are chipped and are missing from their owners. 

Any citizen who would like to volunteer or donate are free to message or call Claire Kisling at 731-514-4779.